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Smart car slams into Ott & Murphy

This Smart car rests against the exterior wall of Ott & Murphy on First Street in Langley. The driver, behind the car, said her foot slipped and hit the gas pedal, shooting her car over the curb, through a planter and into the building.

by BEN WATANABE, South Whidbey Record Langley, Clinton, arts and entertainment, features

May 17, 2013 at 3:14PM

A Smart Car made a dumb mistake Friday in Langley when its driver missed the gas pedal, sending the tiny black car into the exterior wall of a wine shop.

The driver, who declined to give her name, said her foot slipped and hit the accelerator. The jolt sent the car over the curb, onto the First Street sidewalk and through a planter before Ott & Murphy’s wall stopped car and driver.

The accident drew the attention of Whidbey General Hospital EMTs, South Whidbey Fire/EMS, Langley Police Department and plenty of Langley shop owners and onlookers.

On the dashboard of the Smart car was a disabled parking pass, and on the passenger seat was a cane, which the driver later grabbed so she could sit on a bench outside Ott & Murphy.

The Smart car crashed against a parked Nissan Sentra in the space next to it, scraping the front passenger-side paneling. The position of the two cars, seemingly tangled, made it difficult for the Smart car to reverse itself off the sidewalk and away from the building. Mike Cotton, deputy chief for South Whidbey Fire/EMS, said it would likely take a tow truck to slide the Smart Car away from the Sentra first, especially since he estimated the Smart Car was not drivable.

Langley police officer Mitch Hardin, the department’s newest officer, said he would not issue a citation to the driver.

“I don’t think there’s anything malicious here,” Hardin said, adding that it was an insurance issue between the two cars’ owners and the building owner.

Ott & Murphy was closed at the time of the crash, though the shop’s owner was there to evaluate the damage to the storefront.

BEN WATANABE, South Whidbey Record Langley, Clinton, arts and entertainment, features

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